


The Curse of Immortality

by professional_bookworm



Category: Infernal Devices Series - Cassandra Clare, Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Death, F/M, Immortality, Love, M/M, Malec, Parabatai, heronstairs, jessa - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-06 18:04:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6764428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/professional_bookworm/pseuds/professional_bookworm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>These are two stories (I may or may not add to it) about Magnus and Tessa, showing how it feels when you loose someone you love, but cannot follow them into death (at least not anytime soon).</p><p>---------</p><p>ALL CHARACTERS AND SETTIGS AND SHADOWHUNTER STUFF BELONG TO CASSANDRA CLARE</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I: Tessa

Sheets of icy rain streaked from the dreary sky. Thick blankets of clouds blocked the sun from beaming down its usual warmth. Alicante was normally described as a beautiful, shining city, glimmering with reflected sunlight, but today the City of Glass was gray and dull.

Just outside the city stood a pyre. The mountain of wood bore a single figure. A procession of people clad in white stood around it. Several shed tears, for the loss of a shadowhunter over a century old was not to be taken lightly.

After being a Silent Brother for most of his life, turning mortal again, and then living to an old age, no one could say that James Carstairs' life was too short, but it was.

To one person in particular.

Tessa Starkweather Gray Herondale Carstairs stood at the edge of the pyre, eyes locked on one of the two people she loved most in the world. The warlock had been given special permission to enter Idris, but she would have found a way to get in even if she wasn't allowed. On her wrist gleamed a pearl bracelet, an anniversary gift from Will, and around her neck hung a jade pendant, an engagement present from Jem. Will, who had been dead for more than a hundred years, but it felt like just yesterday, and Jem, who had passed away peacefully in his sleep only last night.

Jem

The name of the sick, silver-haired boy she had met in London, who had played the violin with gentle hands and fought with all the grace of an agile hawk.

The name of the boy she had loved and had been engaged to, who had held her and calmed her in the worst of times, and possessed the kindest soul she had ever known.

The only name she had ever heard Will say with kindness, in the first few months she had known him. The name of his parabatai, whom he had cared for and possessed a unique fondness for.

The name that they were forbidden to use for decades, but that they used anyways, because they knew that Brother Zachariah would always be, in part, their Jem.

Tessa bowed her head. She had told herself that she would not cry here. Not in front of the others who hadn't really known Jem as he was throughout all those long years. Not the way she had. Not the way Will had.

A tall shadowhunter came forward with a ceremonial torch, already ablaze with golden flame. It was only fitting that shadowhunters leave this world in flame, for it was also the color of birth.

Tessa forced her eyes up to Jem's body, and froze for a second.

She must have been mistaken. There was no way, no possible way - But it was. Against his stark white skin, just barely showing underneath his white shirt, was the _parabatai_ rune. It was no longer a faded, silver scar, but a bold, black mark once more.

Tessa's mind shot back to something she had read in the Codex long ago. A line of the sacred parabatai oath.

The angel do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.

Jem and Will had been separated for much of their lifetimes. When Jem became a Silent Brother, he had stepped outside of this circle of mortality and life, dividing them. Then, Will had died, and the chasm in between them forced them apart for good.

Or so Tessa had thought.

For the rune that bound them as sworn brothers had blazed up again, and there was no other explanation. Jem and Will were together once more. They had crossed the river of death, to where the immortal warlock could not follow. The two people she loved most were reunited in a distant land she could not reach, and the pain of that realization was unbearable.

Tessa buried her face in her hands, and pearl clinked against jade. The almost 200 year old girl finally allowed herself to cry, as the silvery smoke drifted away over the green hills. 


	2. Magnus

Magnus Bane sat alone in his dark living room, an old sweater in his arms. Usually, the glamorous warlock wouldn't be caught dead with an article of clothing that drab, not to mention without glitter, but today was different. Today was the day that his blue-eyed shadowhunter had left him forever. Today was the day Alexander Lightwood had died.

Magnus curled up, and tried desperately to pull himself together. He was over 400 years old, for god's sake. It shouldn't hurt so much.

But it did. Magnus squeezed his eyes shut.

_Running running dark tunnels turn demons run_

He tried painfully hard to will the unbidden memory away.

_Alec Jace Izzy Clary Simon run run dead end no stop turn run too late_

The pack of demons had cornered them deep underground. Jace hadn't wanted to run, but even he had seen that this horde was too big. And they had run, and run, through the endless dirt tunnels, until they were trapped.

_Demons slashing blades claws darkness pressing fight fire claws demons Alec_

As if from a distance, Magnus saw the fight and saw his own hands blaze up to defend himself. The shadowhunters ducked and weaved around him, their glowing Adamas knives cutting trails in the oppressive darkness. He saw Jace and Alec fighting back to back, and was reminded of another pair of parabatai, in a different country, long ago. Izzy slashed with her whip, unstoppable as she destroyed the demons around her. Clary and Simon were backed up against the wall, but they were holding their own with runed swords and knives.

For a second, Magnus had thought, _We can do this. We're winning._ But everything had gone terribly wrong. A spike from a nearby demon had pierced Clary's shoulder, and she cried out in pain. Momentarily distracted, Jace was almost knocked over by the Ravener he was fighting. Suddenly, another demon appeared out of the tunnel, and Isabelle and Alec rushed forward to engage it. Isabelle wrapped her whip around one of its many spiked tails as Alec shot arrows into its scaly skin.

The smaller demons were all dead now, and the others joined the fight. Then, without warning, the demon lashed forwards with one of its towering spikes, aiming for Jace's heart. Alec, noticing the deadly action, sprang in between the demon and his parabatai, taking the fatal blow to his stomach.

As Alec fell to the dusty floor, the tunnel exploded into even more frenzied chaos. Cries of fury rose from the other shadowhunters, echoing in the confining space. Magnus shot twin beams of white-hot flame at the monster. He could not remember ever being this angry, this frantic, this desperate to put an end to a demon. It had wounded Alec, perhaps even - No. No, he would not dwell on the other possibility. It would only distract him. The cutthroat battle seemed to slow around him for a moment. He saw Jace's eyes, full of a pain that wasn't his. He saw Izzy's terrified glances at her brother while she lashed at the demon's foaming mouth. Even Simon and Clary were fiercely attempting to get close enough to Alec to heal him. Finally, Jace threw a knife into the thing's ugly eye, finally sending its evil soul back to whatever dimension it came from.

But none of the warriors even payed attention to the fact that they had probably just killed a greater demon. Instead, they clustered around the still figure on the ground, fear, desperation, and despair apparent in every face.

Jace knelt over his parabatai, begging for him to be alright, for him to, please, _please_ , stay awake, even though he must have known it was useless. Magnus placed his hands on Alec's chest, trying to heal him, willing the magic to come, and it did, but the sparks fell uselessly to the ground. Even warlocks who were centuries old could not push back the cold, cruel hands of death. With a sort of dull shock, Magnus noted that Isabelle was crying. Brave, strong, Isabelle, who hardly ever shed a single tear in front of anyone else, was crying.

Magnus leaned over his beautiful shadowhunter.

_"Don't forget me_."

The words were faint, but they were there.

_"I love you."_

Magnus knew that those words were not meant solely for him. They were for Clary and Simon and Izzy and Jace, but as Alec met his eyes for the last time, the rest of the world vanished.

Izzy was clutching her brother's body, sobbing into the hair that was so much like her own. Simon hugged both her and Clary, who was mumbling under her breath, seemingly in shock. Magnus stared into nothing.  _I couldn't save him, why couldn't I have saved him?!_  His powers had deserted him when he needed them the most. 

Jace's back went rigid and he clawed at his shirt, hands finding their way to his shoulder. They came away stained with blood. He seemed to collapse in on himself, crumpling as he felt the bond break, the death of his sworn brother taking some part of his own soul with him. 

Magnus knew he should help, provide some minuscule measure of comfort to their pain, but all he could do was touch Alec's cheek and whisper, _I won't forget you. I could never forget you, Alexander._

Then he left. He went back to his apartment, now empty and dark. He pulled out one of Alec's dreadful old sweaters and curled up on his couch, unmoving and without purpose. What _could_ he do? Alec was gone. The person who had brought meaning into his life once more was dead, and nothing in the world could possibly be right again.


End file.
